Tuesday, December 09, 2003

Here's an lovely little item on the strained quality of modern
American justice. Remember James Yee, the Muslim chaplain at
Guantanmo who was arrested a few months ago on charges of espionage?
He is now
on trial -- for keeping porn on a government computer and for
adultery. It's not as if they are terribly worried about adulterers
in the ranks, either -- his partner in, well, crime is also an
officer, and is testifying under a grant of immunity.

So, how did the prosecutors find out about the relationship?

[Yee's paramour] said that as far as she knew, no one else
knew of their relationship. But when she was interviewed during the
security investigation as a friend of Captain Yee's, the interrogator
asked her if they had been intimate and she answered truthfully.

So, the original charges were baseless, but rather than admit that,
the government went on a fishing expedition in his personal life,
found something else, and charged him with that. I thought that kind
of justice was reserved for Bill Clinton.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is looking into Texas justice, the
kind Dubya wants to see nationwide. A court there recently stayed the
execution date for a convict, because prosecutors had lied
to the defense at the trial -- and the stay was overturned by the
circuit court there because... well, actually they won't say why. The
opinion was marked "not for publication".

And one last one, via Jim
Henley. It seems that the median jail sentence for people
convicted of crimes that the Justice Department claims are related to
international terrorism is fourteen
days. When Congress was voting to give the Justice Department
special powers for dealing with crimes relating to terrorism, I doubt
they had anything in mind which would merit a fourteen day jail
sentence. Am I the only person who hears overtones of Orwell these
days whenever they encounter the phrase, "Justice Department"?